Our hero remained but one day at Lodore. To Mrs. Montgomery he explained every thing, but the cause of his own feelings: the state of them he did not attempt to hide. When Mrs. Montgomery spoke of Lady Susan’s marriage, as the cause of his despairing letter, he neither confessed that it was, nor said that it was not. This conduct the kind old lady construed into a confession, that she was right. She, accordingly, after endeavouring to rally him, without being able to extort a smile, closed the subject, by gently hinting, that she had expected more firmness of mind from him: and hoping, that a little change of scene, would make him, very shortly, see things in quite another point of view. Even Mr. Jackson, who, according to the determination he expressed on first hearing Edmund’s letter read, had gone up to town, even he had not been able to draw forth a word on the subject. Once, indeed, Fitz-Ullin said, after a long reverie, and when no question had been asked: “The longer I live, Jackson, the more strongly I feel the excellent truth of your early lessons; had I always obeyed the suggestions of conscience, not only in the letter, but in the spirit; had the plain road, pointed out by duty, been resolutely trod; without waiting to inquire of passion, if there were not a flowery by-path that would, ultimately, lead to the same end; my present sufferings had possibly been, at least, less poignant than they are.” Mr. Jackson was, for a moment, puzzled, almost alarmed. “You can only mean,” he said, “that it would have been more strictly honourable in you, to have avoided Lady Susan’s society, while your birth was unknown, and your fortune limited—Yet—as things have turned out—had her Ladyship entertained a reciprocal preference, why—” “In your kind zeal to place me on good terms with myself,” said Edmund, mournfully, “you are becoming a sophist, Jackson! What had my sense of duty to do with events which I did not, could not foresee?” This was a sort of admission, that Mr. Jackson had been right, in ascribing Edmund’s wretchedness to his disappointment, about Lady Susan; but nothing more was said on the subject then, or at any other time.